Water, water everywhere

Water used to taste good enough to eat, is what I once said about the water in a place I lived that got its supply straight from a stream high on a mountain. That water is no more and neither is the mountain. The latter was levelled for gravel to pave roads south of the border and the water settled itself downward as water will do, as the hill disappeared onto barges heading south. It still supplied the village, but as the population grew so did the village infrastructure. The populace no longer trusted the water as pure as it was since it had, heaven forbid, "minerals" and "sediment" in it. You might even see tiny bits floating about. When you take minerals all by themselves, yes, some, including trace arsenic, a natural ingredient like gold, in many systems, can be dangerous in large quantities. Little critters that live in water and can be our bodily friends are also quite safe if they are allowed to participate in Nature's wise balance scheme. But no. In this squeaky clean society in which we exist, so far, we have to have what is called "pure" water. That's a misnomer. That means to remove everything from our water that remotely might live in in, remotely might do harm in large amounts or might make it not absolutely clear. Not only do we attempt to remove these things, we add other substances that really are harmful in large quantities. We are told that now with the addition of these substances, the water will be clear and in spite of the dreadful taste, the added chemicals will make it healthier. I suppose it's all fine and dandy, but I miss the water that used to taste good to drink and came straight from the stream to the tap in my kitchen. Now I don't drink the new "healthy" water as it stands, because, frankly, it not only stinks, but it tastes dreadful. To drink it, I am not into a lot of filtration as some of my neighbours have become addicted to and pay richly for at the hardware store, I let it sit in a cool place and add lemon slices. I don't know whether that makes it healthier but it surely does taste better. I visited someone recently who photographed what his filters looked like. I said, which one of these black and brown things is the good one? I learned that all three of these conical filters had been attached to his tap and this was the result. He also told me that they changed these expensive filters regularly in order to have pure water. He showed me his "system" under the sink and it took up a lot of very impressive space under there. Three big cylinders stood in a row and were attached by a plumber to the tiny water tap they used daily. I was also shown a big steel thing on the counter that forced carbon bubbles into the water  so that these folks could design their own form of flavoured bubbly waters to drink. After this costly display of water treatment, I had to rush home and drink some of my tap lemon water just to quench my very mundane thirst.